Assignment #7
For me planning this work was not easy. As I have said before, I'm not a teacher and I'm not teaching right now, therefore finding a strategy for a class that I don't even teach and students I don't even know was a lot of thinking.
The first thing I had to do was asking a teacher to work with her class, so I asked two spanish teachers for this. I feel a lot more confident if I have to speak in my first language thats why I chose the spanish lesson. Miss Mariella and Miss Fiorella were more than OK with this.
I thought on doing the autobiography cube with one class because as I don't know the students it was going to be a great activity to do some reflection. I also thought this would be great because I could only meet once with each class because of the crazy schedule (school was almost over). The other activity was a little bit harder to choose, I wanted to do something that could help the students in their work but as I only had one class with them I had to figure that out. When I asked Miss Fiorella what class I was going to teach she answered First Grade and told me that her class loved to dance and worked very well when she did an activity with "Macarena". I was sure music was going to motivate the whole class and make it fun. This is why after reading Tomlinson, and I quote "reflect on the match between your classroom and the philosophy of teaching and learning you want to practice." the Monster Mash activity sounded just right to me, hopefully it was going to be a strength based lesson.
After having the two strategies chosen I planned everything.
Activity 1
Grade: Third grade
Age: 8-9 years old
Lesson: Spanish
Activity: Autobiographic Cube
Differentiation: Process, product and environment (Tomlinson)
I chose this activity because as I didn't know the students and only had one period to work with them it fitted perfectly into what I could manage to do.
Miss Mariella told me her students weren't very calm and that she usually told them to read a book so they could calm down. As Christmas was almost there I chose a story, waited for all the students to get into the class and read a really nice story about Rudolf. The story was about Rudolf the reindeer who was always pointed because of his big and shiny nose, but on Christmas night Santa couldn't see a thing because it was very foggy so Rudolf helped him with his bright nose. After telling the story I explained how we all have defects and we need to accept ourselves, know us well and accept us just the way we are. Having this introduction said I explained the autobiography activity, how I was interested on knowing them. I showed my cube in the projector, explained the activity, gave directions and examples of what they could draw, write, color, etc. I said that they could do whatever they felt like doing, if they wanted to draw only with pencil, just write or draw with their left hand it was just fine, it was their work and I just wanted to know more about them.
As I said already, Miss Mariella gave me the advice that her class was very disturbing and didn't follow very well directions. I was hoping this activity would capture some students attraction and calm down the situation. And I was not wrong.
I gave the students a construction paper already cut and lined, they only had to mark the X's, draw, cut and paste, I had to save some time, that's why I didn't give them any magazines, that was going to take too long.
The students worked nicely, they were right on task, and only needed some help on the folding and pasting. I went around checking their work, helping with some ideas and told them that when they were finished they had to show me their work and explain to me what each thing ment. I learned a lot about each one and realized how there are a lot of foreigners. The students were all over the place so I told them to share their cubes with their friends and compare what they had in common, that way they could find similar interests with others and get to know their friends better.
After the activity was over I told the boys and girls to get to their places and asked them to rise their hands if they liked the activity, only one said he didn't. I said to them they could go home and show their cubes to their family and to think on things they like or describes themselves like being from a different country or having brothers and sisters.
The activity was great, I got to know the students more than I have ever being able to in only 40 minutes, not only because of the explanations of their cubes but because of their behavior and attitudes. They felt so comfortable that they acted the way they always do, but did not misbehaved. The boys and girls were right on task, enjoyed the class, I definitively would do it if I had a new class to teach. It is a great activity to get to know your students and as it is fun the students are engaged on the work. I can't think on something I would change, maybe if they were older I would make them do everything, even the measuring and cutting from the beginning.
This is me at the end of the class asking This is how they worked on their cubes.
the students to rise their hands if they had
fun.
Activity 2
Grade: First grade
Age: 6-7 years old
Lesson: Spanish
Activity: Monster Mash
Differentiation: Process and environment (Tomlinson)
When I decided to do the Monster Mash activity I had to think on something fast that the students could do after the dance and that would help them on the spanish lesson. I couldn't make them write a story or a news like the book said because that was going to take too long, therefore I asked Miss Fiorella what they were working on and she said they were learning words with "R". It was perfect, this activity is for students who are learning a second language and this students were taking a lesson on their first language but they were learning new words, so it helped a lot. My plan was to warm up by watching the video (I downloaded the music video and projected it) and describe what the song was about. The scaffolding steps would be the dancing and brain storming words with "R" that had to do with the dancing activity and monsters. My target was to reinforce words with "R" and to know how to apply them in their vocabulary by coming up with creative sentences.
When the students got into the class we joined at the carpet and made a circle, I told them we were going to dance a song and that those who wanted to dance in the middle were going to be picked by me, we were going to copy their dance and take turns. I explained what the song was about and showed it once before the dancing. We did the dancing twice, it went well, almost every students wanted to be in the middle. Then they got back to their tables and we all brainstormed around twelve words such as black, Dracula, monster, dancing, blood (in spanish). I gave lined papers and they started to do their sentences. Almost half the class did more than two sentences, I was really impressed how well they worked. The sentences had total relation with the theme and their spelling was very good. I corrected their work and gave them "nice work" seals.
While reading Gardner, I first thought that the Monster Mash activity would have worked better with students with Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence if the brainstorming would have being done at the same time of the dancing. Nevertheless, I realized that the warming up puts in alert the brain, so the activity was just right and that maybe doing both things simultaneously would have distracted their attention (multitasking is not productive). Therefore I'm sure those students with a strength in this type of intelligence did much better than without the previous dancing or doing both at the same time.
I wished my bridging path activity would let the students make a more complex final work but the reality of timing didn't allow me to do so, nevertheless I was very pleased with the result. The students worked very well, were engaged and had fun! Something I would change in the future is the goal by making them do something more challenging like writing a story. This activity allows the students to expand their creativity. Monster creatures are something kids love and whenever they are motivated they will be engaged and work well.
This are some of the sentences the students did after the Monster Mash activity.
As a conclusion I have to say I didn't do what I wanted the most. Because I don't have a class and time was too short, I couldn't work more than one day with the same students but if I had have the opportunity to do so, I would have done the Think Tac Toe activity with absolutely different things. When we first did this in class I just loved it. This activity helps to know on what kind of Learning Style each student feels more comfortable and I'm sure it reveals strengths in some students that the teachers don't even know.
Assignment #6 Responses to fiction. For children on second grade.
Make puppets of the main character and one more character on the story. Make sure the puppets have certain characteristics of the characters.
Retell the story to a friend. You can use material in class to explain what is going on.
Fill in a story map of the story.
Dramatize the events of the story.
Make a mural of the setting of the story. Include in your mural at least 5 details and label them.
Build a different ending to the story using the legos in class.
Predict what will happen next? What do you think will happen next? Write or draw a sequel to the story.
When drawing you can do a comic or storybook.
Draw your favorite part of the story and tell what is happening.
Connect something you read in the story to something from your own life. Draw or write something that happened to you that is similar to the events or characters in the book.
Assignment #5 A characteristic for special needs people is that they have very low social skills, specially people with asperger and austism. The only evolutionary reason I see for this is that we are changing our way of comunicating, today we can chat or email someone and have no need to use body language or facial expressions, we don't even need to really laugh or cry. If we think on how we look when we communicate using a computer (when we are chatting or emailing), we can think of ourselves as asperger people, looking at the screen, not listening to anybody else, absolutely focused on our chat, not expressing ourselves with our bodies, etc. If we sometimes act as people with special needs and its each time more frequent, I don't see why there can't be people who have already evolved and live as if we would only interact to procreate. Focusing on Asperger people (who would be the species mostly evolved, LD would be the beginning of the evolution) they do have feelings but are not as sensitive as we usually are, therefore, if this continuos, human beings would be solitary people who don't need to interact, make jokes, lie and would have no feelings. We would be like machines, focused on one thing that we would do perfectly and everything would be very mechanical, less complicated.
Something else I have thought about is that this special characteristics in some people are an alert from nature. We as the human species are doing so many things at the same time, not only multitasking, but having too many things going on, that we are starting to do everything badly. Studies demonstrate that we are not able to do things right without concentrating and focusing. Nature is telling us to stop and focus. ADHD, LD, Asperger, Autism, etc are reactions of an overdosed (of information and work) species.
Assignment #4
Melissa, Randa, Melanie, Allison
ELL
Learning English, but are native speakers of a different language. Their level of English may vary, but typically, they are considered ELL if their comprehension and production of English interferes with their learning in the regular mainstream. If they need support in order to keep up, they are considered English Language Learners.
Difficulties communicating with families due to language and cultural barriers.
Difficulties finding people that speak their native language in order to bridge the gap.
Overcrowded classroom Tight budgets Lack of teacher training Big controversy over best method: English language immersion or bilingual education. How much emphasis to give to native language. Big debate over additive approaches versus subtractive approaches. Lack of bilingual teachers Standardized tests are a big challenge.
-Using LCD, alphasmarts, internet, digital cameras, scanners, and online videos and images.
-Tools and techniques: Using goole image search as a new visual dictionary. Making it more of an exploratory activity.
-Using internet search engines is going to equip them with the skills to evaluate the validity or usefulness of a website.
-Using the LCD projector you can take games like boggle and make it a whole class activity. First shake the gridbox, take a digital picture of the results, and send it directly to the computer. (or you may use a docucam if you have one).
-Editing student writing: Also using the overhead to project to the whole class.
-Music is an effective medium for retaining information because it activates three different centers of the brain at the same time: language, hearing and mental motor control. Therefore it creates a heightened condition of awareness and mental acuity.
-Words paired with music are far easier to retain.
-The messages in the songs must be reinforced by complementary activities such as writing, speaking, acting, drawing, building, creating and movement (MI)
- Extend school year
o After school programs that implement phonics-based learning programs.
o Use community resources.
-Phonic based success for all learning program: A strict and uniform lesson plan that requires 90 minutes of reading in school and 20 more at home.
-Work in small groups based on ability
-Provide individual after school assistance
Assignment #3
1st Grade Students. Games and toys change from generation to generation.
Assignment #2 Reflection I have learned a lot of things so far, specially the difference between Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles. I had never heard about this (remember I haven't studied teaching) but it was obvious for me what I was hearing about the different Intelligences; I think this was because I find it very familiar, somehow I felt identified with not being able to understand things in one unique way. It was very clear for me how each person has an internal way of understanding things (MI) and how this information have different ways of being presented (LS) for afterwards internalization. Nevertheless, there was something that caught my attention and it was that children with spatial intelligence have more difficulty to learn how to read. This is important for me because I have a nephew in first grade who is absolutely artistic (I can infer also he has a spatial intelligence) and he is an outstanding student but has trouble reading and is below the reading level, this worries his mom, therefore I can't wait the opportunity to tell her this.
Assignment #1
My name is Melanie Briceño Clemens. I don't teach a class, in fact I'm not even a teacher, I'm a lawyer but don't like working on that. I have worked as a 2nd grade Teacher Assistant at FDR for two years but when my son was born (1 1/2 year ago) I quit my job.
Three things about me:
-I have being married for 5 years and have a 1 1/2 year old son who blows out my mind.
-I can't conceive my life without going to Paracas (a bay at 240kms at the south of Lima) I have a house there and go at least twice a month. I can't describe how I feel when I'm there, It means everything for me and my family.
-I love sports specially walking outdoors.
-I adore and I'm crazy about my country (Peru)
My husband and I did the "Chino & Mela" with rocks years ago in the Paracas Reserve and it's still there. A couple months ago we added the L.F as in Luis Felipe (our sons name). We feel that Paracas is our territory and we wanted to make it clear to everyone :)
For me planning this work was not easy. As I have said before, I'm not a teacher and I'm not teaching right now, therefore finding a strategy for a class that I don't even teach and students I don't even know was a lot of thinking.
The first thing I had to do was asking a teacher to work with her class, so I asked two spanish teachers for this. I feel a lot more confident if I have to speak in my first language thats why I chose the spanish lesson. Miss Mariella and Miss Fiorella were more than OK with this.
I thought on doing the autobiography cube with one class because as I don't know the students it was going to be a great activity to do some reflection. I also thought this would be great because I could only meet once with each class because of the crazy schedule (school was almost over). The other activity was a little bit harder to choose, I wanted to do something that could help the students in their work but as I only had one class with them I had to figure that out. When I asked Miss Fiorella what class I was going to teach she answered First Grade and told me that her class loved to dance and worked very well when she did an activity with "Macarena". I was sure music was going to motivate the whole class and make it fun. This is why after reading Tomlinson, and I quote "reflect on the match between your classroom and the philosophy of teaching and learning you want to practice." the Monster Mash activity sounded just right to me, hopefully it was going to be a strength based lesson.
After having the two strategies chosen I planned everything.
Activity 1
Grade: Third grade
Age: 8-9 years old
Lesson: Spanish
Activity: Autobiographic Cube
Differentiation: Process, product and environment (Tomlinson)
I chose this activity because as I didn't know the students and only had one period to work with them it fitted perfectly into what I could manage to do.
Miss Mariella told me her students weren't very calm and that she usually told them to read a book so they could calm down. As Christmas was almost there I chose a story, waited for all the students to get into the class and read a really nice story about Rudolf. The story was about Rudolf the reindeer who was always pointed because of his big and shiny nose, but on Christmas night Santa couldn't see a thing because it was very foggy so Rudolf helped him with his bright nose. After telling the story I explained how we all have defects and we need to accept ourselves, know us well and accept us just the way we are. Having this introduction said I explained the autobiography activity, how I was interested on knowing them. I showed my cube in the projector, explained the activity, gave directions and examples of what they could draw, write, color, etc. I said that they could do whatever they felt like doing, if they wanted to draw only with pencil, just write or draw with their left hand it was just fine, it was their work and I just wanted to know more about them.
As I said already, Miss Mariella gave me the advice that her class was very disturbing and didn't follow very well directions. I was hoping this activity would capture some students attraction and calm down the situation. And I was not wrong.
I gave the students a construction paper already cut and lined, they only had to mark the X's, draw, cut and paste, I had to save some time, that's why I didn't give them any magazines, that was going to take too long.
The students worked nicely, they were right on task, and only needed some help on the folding and pasting. I went around checking their work, helping with some ideas and told them that when they were finished they had to show me their work and explain to me what each thing ment. I learned a lot about each one and realized how there are a lot of foreigners. The students were all over the place so I told them to share their cubes with their friends and compare what they had in common, that way they could find similar interests with others and get to know their friends better.
After the activity was over I told the boys and girls to get to their places and asked them to rise their hands if they liked the activity, only one said he didn't. I said to them they could go home and show their cubes to their family and to think on things they like or describes themselves like being from a different country or having brothers and sisters.
The activity was great, I got to know the students more than I have ever being able to in only 40 minutes, not only because of the explanations of their cubes but because of their behavior and attitudes. They felt so comfortable that they acted the way they always do, but did not misbehaved. The boys and girls were right on task, enjoyed the class, I definitively would do it if I had a new class to teach. It is a great activity to get to know your students and as it is fun the students are engaged on the work. I can't think on something I would change, maybe if they were older I would make them do everything, even the measuring and cutting from the beginning.
This is me at the end of the class asking This is how they worked on their cubes.
the students to rise their hands if they had
fun.
Activity 2
Grade: First grade
Age: 6-7 years old
Lesson: Spanish
Activity: Monster Mash
Differentiation: Process and environment (Tomlinson)
When I decided to do the Monster Mash activity I had to think on something fast that the students could do after the dance and that would help them on the spanish lesson. I couldn't make them write a story or a news like the book said because that was going to take too long, therefore I asked Miss Fiorella what they were working on and she said they were learning words with "R". It was perfect, this activity is for students who are learning a second language and this students were taking a lesson on their first language but they were learning new words, so it helped a lot. My plan was to warm up by watching the video (I downloaded the music video and projected it) and describe what the song was about. The scaffolding steps would be the dancing and brain storming words with "R" that had to do with the dancing activity and monsters. My target was to reinforce words with "R" and to know how to apply them in their vocabulary by coming up with creative sentences.
When the students got into the class we joined at the carpet and made a circle, I told them we were going to dance a song and that those who wanted to dance in the middle were going to be picked by me, we were going to copy their dance and take turns. I explained what the song was about and showed it once before the dancing. We did the dancing twice, it went well, almost every students wanted to be in the middle. Then they got back to their tables and we all brainstormed around twelve words such as black, Dracula, monster, dancing, blood (in spanish). I gave lined papers and they started to do their sentences. Almost half the class did more than two sentences, I was really impressed how well they worked. The sentences had total relation with the theme and their spelling was very good. I corrected their work and gave them "nice work" seals.
While reading Gardner, I first thought that the Monster Mash activity would have worked better with students with Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence if the brainstorming would have being done at the same time of the dancing. Nevertheless, I realized that the warming up puts in alert the brain, so the activity was just right and that maybe doing both things simultaneously would have distracted their attention (multitasking is not productive). Therefore I'm sure those students with a strength in this type of intelligence did much better than without the previous dancing or doing both at the same time.
I wished my bridging path activity would let the students make a more complex final work but the reality of timing didn't allow me to do so, nevertheless I was very pleased with the result. The students worked very well, were engaged and had fun! Something I would change in the future is the goal by making them do something more challenging like writing a story. This activity allows the students to expand their creativity. Monster creatures are something kids love and whenever they are motivated they will be engaged and work well.
This are some of the sentences the students did after the Monster Mash activity.
As a conclusion I have to say I didn't do what I wanted the most. Because I don't have a class and time was too short, I couldn't work more than one day with the same students but if I had have the opportunity to do so, I would have done the Think Tac Toe activity with absolutely different things. When we first did this in class I just loved it. This activity helps to know on what kind of Learning Style each student feels more comfortable and I'm sure it reveals strengths in some students that the teachers don't even know.
Assignment #6
Responses to fiction. For children on second grade.
Write or draw a sequel to the story.
When drawing you can do a comic or storybook.
Assignment #5
A characteristic for special needs people is that they have very low social skills, specially people with asperger and austism. The only evolutionary reason I see for this is that we are changing our way of comunicating, today we can chat or email someone and have no need to use body language or facial expressions, we don't even need to really laugh or cry.
If we think on how we look when we communicate using a computer (when we are chatting or emailing), we can think of ourselves as asperger people, looking at the screen, not listening to anybody else, absolutely focused on our chat, not expressing ourselves with our bodies, etc. If we sometimes act as people with special needs and its each time more frequent, I don't see why there can't be people who have already evolved and live as if we would only interact to procreate.
Focusing on Asperger people (who would be the species mostly evolved, LD would be the beginning of the evolution) they do have feelings but are not as sensitive as we usually are, therefore, if this continuos, human beings would be solitary people who don't need to interact, make jokes, lie and would have no feelings. We would be like machines, focused on one thing that we would do perfectly and everything would be very mechanical, less complicated.
Something else I have thought about is that this special characteristics in some people are an alert from nature. We as the human species are doing so many things at the same time, not only multitasking, but having too many things going on, that we are starting to do everything badly. Studies demonstrate that we are not able to do things right without concentrating and focusing. Nature is telling us to stop and focus. ADHD, LD, Asperger, Autism, etc are reactions of an overdosed (of information and work) species.
Assignment #4
Difficulties finding people that speak their native language in order to bridge the gap.
Overcrowded classroom
Tight budgets
Lack of teacher training
Big controversy over best method: English language immersion or bilingual education.
How much emphasis to give to native language. Big debate over additive approaches versus subtractive approaches.
Lack of bilingual teachers
Standardized tests are a big challenge.
-Tools and techniques: Using goole image search as a new visual dictionary. Making it more of an exploratory activity.
-Using internet search engines is going to equip them with the skills to evaluate the validity or usefulness of a website.
-Using the LCD projector you can take games like boggle and make it a whole class activity. First shake the gridbox, take a digital picture of the results, and send it directly to the computer. (or you may use a docucam if you have one).
-Editing student writing: Also using the overhead to project to the whole class.
-Music is an effective medium for retaining information because it activates three different centers of the brain at the same time: language, hearing and mental motor control. Therefore it creates a heightened condition of awareness and mental acuity.
-Words paired with music are far easier to retain.
-The messages in the songs must be reinforced by complementary activities such as writing, speaking, acting, drawing, building, creating and movement (MI)
- Extend school year
o After school programs that implement phonics-based learning programs.
o Use community resources.
-Phonic based success for all learning program: A strict and uniform lesson plan that requires 90 minutes of reading in school and 20 more at home.
-Work in small groups based on ability
-Provide individual after school assistance
Assignment #3
1st Grade Students. Games and toys change from generation to generation.
Assignment #2
Reflection
I have learned a lot of things so far, specially the difference between Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles. I had never heard about this (remember I haven't studied teaching) but it was obvious for me what I was hearing about the different Intelligences; I think this was because I find it very familiar, somehow I felt identified with not being able to understand things in one unique way. It was very clear for me how each person has an internal way of understanding things (MI) and how this information have different ways of being presented (LS) for afterwards internalization.
Nevertheless, there was something that caught my attention and it was that children with spatial intelligence have more difficulty to learn how to read. This is important for me because I have a nephew in first grade who is absolutely artistic (I can infer also he has a spatial intelligence) and he is an outstanding student but has trouble reading and is below the reading level, this worries his mom, therefore I can't wait the opportunity to tell her this.
Assignment #1
My name is Melanie Briceño Clemens. I don't teach a class, in fact I'm not even a teacher, I'm a lawyer but don't like working on that. I have worked as a 2nd grade Teacher Assistant at FDR for two years but when my son was born (1 1/2 year ago) I quit my job.
Three things about me:
-I have being married for 5 years and have a 1 1/2 year old son who blows out my mind.
-I can't conceive my life without going to Paracas (a bay at 240kms at the south of Lima) I have a house there and go at least twice a month. I can't describe how I feel when I'm there, It means everything for me and my family.
-I love sports specially walking outdoors.
-I adore and I'm crazy about my country (Peru)
My husband and I did the "Chino & Mela" with rocks years ago in the Paracas Reserve and it's still there. A couple months ago we added the L.F as in Luis Felipe (our sons name). We feel that Paracas is our territory and we wanted to make it clear to everyone :)